19/01/2015 - The co-production forum for Eastern and Western Europe reveals the seven projects selected in the new sections Last Stop Trieste and First Cut Lab

Thirty different countries, 150 international decision makers, more than 300 registered participants: these are the figures for the fifth edition of When East Meets West, the co-production forum for Eastern and Western Europe starting today, Monday 19 January, in Trieste. Along with 22 projects in development selected for the pitching, out of the record number of 285 submissions, When East Meets West is launching two new initiatives dedicated to films at the post-production stage.

Last Stop Trieste (LST) is a work-in-progress section for creative documentaries organised in conjunction with the Trieste Film Festival. Four selected rough cuts will be screened to an exclusive panel of international sales agents, festival programmers and TV commissioning editors, and will compete for the HBO Europe Award, a prize worth €1,000 delivered by an international jury comprising Catherine Le Clef (CAT&Docs), Leena Pasanen (Dok Leipzig) and Claudia Schreiner (MDR).

First Cut Lab (FCL) is a programme designed for fiction feature films in the editing phase. Three selected producer/director teams will receive expert feedback from ten international experts and tailor-made advice from a consulting editor. The main goal is to foster the artistic, sales and festival potential of the completed films. FCL is coordinated by Matthieu Darras (TorinoFilmLab) and Alex Traila (Transilvania IFF), and for this pilot edition has teamed up with Flow Post Production, a Belgian-based one-stop-shop facility that will award a free DCP to all selected projects.

Alongside these new side events, When East Meets West will dedicate a special focus to the English-speaking countries, featuring a rich programme dedicated to co-production opportunities with the UK, Ireland, Canada and the USA. The two-day event will include panels, case studies, meetings and, for the first time, the live-stream event "If you don't put your film on the internet, someone else will", organised thanks to cooperation between EAVE and WEMW, and to be broadcast on 20 January at 11:30 – 13:00 on www.eave.org.

The four documentaries presented at Last Stop Trieste and the three fiction feature films presented at First Cut Lab are:

LAST STOP TRIESTE
Brothers [+see also:
trailer
film profile]
Director: Wojciech Staron
Producer: Malgorzata Staron
Staron Film, Poland

Children of the Train [+see also:
trailer
film profile]
Director: Klara Trencsenyi
Producer: Julianna Ugrin
Eclipse Film, Hungary 

Four passports
Director: Mihajlo Jevtic
Producer: Natalia Imaz
Parabellum Film, Germany 

Karst
Director: Vladimir Todorovic
Producer: Adriana Ferrarese
Ceresa Film, France 

FIRST CUT LAB 
Sleeping Lessons
Director: Rusudan Pirveli
Producers: Rusudan Pirveli
Filmodrom, Georgia 

Stange Heaven
Director: Dariusz Gajewski
Producer: Dariusz Gajewski, Kuba Kosma
Tak Film, Poland 

That Trip We Took with Dad
Director: Anca M. Lazarescu
Producers: David Lindner Leporda
Filmallee, Germany 

WEMW is organised by the Friuli Venezia Giulia Audiovisual Fund together with the Trieste Film Festival, in conjunction with EAVE, Maia workshops, Creative Europe Desk Italy MEDIA, Eurimages, and with the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme, Direzione Generale per il Cinema – MiBACT, CEI (Central European Initiative), Confartigianato Udine and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

(Translated from Italian)